Miscommunication in food service is usually harmless, until outsized egos get in the way.

One cook tried to clarify a vague sandwich order, but an impatient customer shut him down — setting himself up for a meal that was technically correct, but deeply disappointing.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one!

Made a customer the food he ordered despite knowing it was not what he wanted.

This happened a while ago when I was a cook in a small restaurant.

The place was so small I was generally both cashier and cook, except for when the owners were there and would assist with some of the duties.

Everything about this particular shift was pretty routine.

This specific day was a weekend, so I was doing weekly prep and was covered up to my elbows in flour when the phone rang.

I rushed to clean up in order to answer, but my boss gestured me to relax and let his teenage daughter get it.

Minutes later, his teenage daughter arrived to tell me they ordered a sub. They would like breaded chicken, tomatoes, and no cheese.

But this confused the chef.

Being that there’s no specified sub on the menu with that description, I started wondering exactly what it was he wanted. I logically assumed he’d like one of the two breaded chicken subs.

Would he want a chicken parm sub, or could it potentially be the chicken finger sub? The difference between the two is that the chicken parm would include tomato sauce and breaded chicken, while the chicken finger included breaded chicken, cut tomatoes, lettuce, and usually some mayo.

He decided to take initiative and just make both sandwiches.

In an effort to not annoy the customer with an extra call, I decided to get everything ready for both options and simply confirm what he wanted when he arrived.

I warmed up the bread, deep-fried the chicken, warmed up some sauce, and even ensured we had tomatoes cut.

But the interaction didn’t go as planned.

When the man showed up, we had the following interaction:

“Hi, just wanted to confirm your order. You want a chicken sub with tomatoes? Anything else? Would you like—”

To which he cut me off and said:

“I WANT WHAT I TOLD THE GIRL ON THE PHONE.”

The cook tries and fails to reason with him.

“I understand that, sir, but I am not the girl on the phone. I just want to confirm—”

“I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE SO INCOMPETENT. I AM NOT REPEATING MYSELF. I WANT WHAT I TOLD THE GIRL ON THE PHONE.”

“Alright, right. It’ll be out in 30 seconds.”

So he decides to just wing it, and, of course, it’s not up to the customer’s standards.

In response, I went back, put breaded chicken and tomato slices on a sub, wrapped it up, and handed it to him.

Just five minutes later, I got an angry phone call informing me his chicken parm had no sauce.

“Well sir, according to the ‘girl on the phone,’ you wanted a chicken and tomatoes sub with no cheese, and so that is what you received.”

The customer slammed down the phone and hung up.

My go-to example of unreasonable customers whose behavior ultimately screws them over. It’s not my meal that wasn’t what I expected.

The customer refused to repeat himself, so the cook only did the best he could.

What did Reddit think?

Something’s not adding up to this commenter.

There are often many misunderstandings between front of house staff and back of house staff.

Don’t customers realize what kind of power these people have?

In the end, the customer got exactly what he ordered—no more, no less.

Turns out, the customer is not always right.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.